Skip to main content
Dessert

Strawberry Caramels

A sweet candy made from sugar, glucose, cream, butter, and strawberry essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Strawberry Caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel

  1. Combine the sugar, glucose, and hot water in a caramel saucepan and mix thoroughly.

  2. Place over medium heat, stirring occasionally while boiling.

  3. Boil until the mixture hardens when dropped into cold water.

  4. Carefully add the cream and butter.

  5. Boil again while stirring continuously.

  6. Remove from heat when it snaps in cold water.

Flavor and set

  1. Flavor with essence of strawberry and color red.

  2. Pour into a shallow oiled tin.

  3. Mark into squares.

  4. Cut before it hardens too much.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + strawberrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + strawberrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Provides the sweetness and, when boiled, the firm candy structure as it cools.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization so the caramel stays smooth rather than grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and softness, giving the caramel a creamy, chewy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a softer bite and smoother texture.

The step that matters

Remove from heat when it snaps in cold water. Sugar syrup firms as its temperature rises, so removing it too early leaves soft, sticky caramels while overcooking makes them hard and brittle. Testing in cold water shows when the sugar reaches the right concentration.

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberrythe original
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Strawberry Ice CreamStrawberry Ice Cream122 recipesStrawberry SherbetStrawberry Sherbet48 recipesStrawberry Water IceStrawberry Water Ice24 recipesStrawberry FoamStrawberry Foam7 recipes